Monday, November 3, 2008

Autumnal Initiations

It's officially fall here, and nothing says fall on the east coast like apple picking, i guess.  so i got on a train and met some friends up by croton falls to meander through an orchard or two and see what LA could never offer me.



there she is, old outhouse orchards.  full marks for autumnal decor.  


i stumbled upon these guys while we were getting our apple picking bags.  cinnamon cider donuts.  in a dream world i could have eaten one million of them.  realistically, probably close to twenty five.  unfortunately, i ended up with one due to a lack of small change.  it's basically exactly what you want to eat at an orchard on a slightly brisk afternoon.  


as far as i can tell, no one is better at placing small, white ramshackle buildings in remote settings than the east coast. 


the ceremonial first bite.  there was a good amount of variation between the apples that we tasted, although they didn't tell us what kinds they were which was frustrating.  in general, i was underwhelmed by the quality.  none of the apples had the explosive sweetness or flavor that i was expecting, and some of them were pretty mealy.  but what they lacked in quality they made up for in quantity.  by the end of the session i estimated that i had eaten more than ten whole apples in less than an hour.  i was then informed of the incredible amount of fiber that apples carry in their skin, which became problematic for me later that evening.


on the whole I would say my first apple picking was a success, although next year i think the apple to cider donuts ratio needs to be adjusted.  at least a dozen cider donuts, please.  and a glass of milk. 



 And here is the rest of it.

Read more